The Burmese View of “Seven-year Devastation” of Manipur

By: Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh – April 19 2012

Though we can not always trust historians who often tend to manipulate, we can not do without
them. For example: historians who study the life of Jesus draw a wide range of conclusions.
While religious historians will write about Jesus as real historical figure, non-religious writers
will go at lengths to prove that Jesus was a fictional figure as they will about Krishna.

As I hardly know anything about Manipur’s “Chahi Taret Khundakpa”- “Seven-year

Devastation” (1819-1825), I continue to swim over the shallow tides of that part of Manipur’s
history. I believe, ‘Ningthourol Lambuba’ has a record of this but the text is unavailable for
general reading.

The chance to read an old record of this bit of history came when my wife, my son and I went on
a holiday to Burma (Myanmar) in March 2012.

In Rangoon (Yangon), a city like Mumbai, I found one book: ‘History of Burma from the
Earliest Times to 10 March 1824’ by G E Harvey (London, 1925). The book is based on a mass
of original sources – Burmese inscriptions and chronicles, together with English, Dutch, and
Portuguese sources and translated Chinese chronicles.
History of Burma from the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 - Courtesy Google Books

The seven-year devastation was a long awaited revenge by the Burmese for what the Manipuris
did to them over the years. It only came to an end when the British East India Company defeated
the Burmese and the Treaty of Yandebo was signed on February 24 1826, between General
Archibald Campbell and the Governor of Lagaing, Maha M H K Htin.

To authenticate that my essay is not a concoction I will quote GE Harvey directly, as he would
not have had any interest in fabricating Manipuri history.

Before that I will dwell a bit on the Burmese who were known at that time of history, as Ava
(Innwa), who the Meiteis called Awa (corrupted by Hindus and Malays).The Europeans called
them Ava. The Burmese called the Manipuris as Kathe or (corrupted) Cassey.

The Burmese civilisation was a long way ahead of the Manipuri’s. They are Mongolian, yet,
their traditions refer to India. Even their folklore is largely Hindu with Hindu gods. Hindu
immigrants came to upper Burma through Assam while in lower Burma they came by sea from
Madras.

Their Hinduism began to include Buddhist elements after 261 BCE, when Asoka conquered
Kalinga and introduced Buddhism into south India. It spread from there to lower Burma and over
a long period of time to upper Burma. That was how the
Burmese began to use Tamil alphabet in the 5th century after Christ.

Ava was also the ancient capital of the dominant Ava kingdom that ruled Burma from 1364-
1557. It is situated on the south bank of the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River, as it bends east from
Mandalay, which is situated on the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy River.

According to British ethnologists who invented all kinds of ethnic migration theories, the name
Burma was derived from the majority ethnic group called Bamar (Burmans) who came down
with the horse-riding Nanzhao invasions from the present-day Yunnan. Nanzhaos left but the
Burmans stayed and founded a small city of Pagan (now Bagan with the ruins of two thousand
pagodas and temples) in the central Irrawady valley, c.849 (9th century). They established an
empire and their common language became Burmese. It is now the lingua franca of Myanmar.

By 1281, the 250-year-old Pagan Empire was destroyed by the invading Mongols of Kublai
Khan. The Mongols left but the Shans who came with the Mongols did not. They established
many separate Shan states in the entire northwest through central to eastern Burma until 1556.

In 1364, the most powerful Shan kingdom of Mogaung (in the present-day Kachin state) sacked
the Shan kingdom of Sagaing, just 20 km south west of Mandalay on the Indian border. During
the devastatation and in the same year a Sagaing prince Thadominbya emerged and founded the
Second Ava kingdom. The Ava kingdom became synonymous with the central and northern
Burma.

“In 1557 the Ava king Bayinnaung (1551-1581), conquered Manipur. Later, Ava King
Bodawpaya acquired Arakan in 1785, Manipur in 1814, and the Ahom Shan kingdom of Assam
along the Khasi hill district in 1817.” (GE Harvey pp165, 283)

There is nothing left at the old capital site of Ava except for a 200-year old teak Okkyaung
monastery (built in 1818). It is a little village now; to reach there, we travelled by boat down the
Irrawady from the Mandalay waterfront to Minguine for an hour.

There, on the bank of the Irrawady, an open and very welcome 4- star restaurant with chilled
beer, among the leafy trees, awaited the visitors in the hot Burmese Sun.
After lunch we travelled by horse carts along a very bumpy village road for an hour to the village
of Ava

The ruins of Ava are similar to Yandebo – a pottery village by the Irrawady River, where the
Treaty of Yandebo was signed under a tree, between the Court of Ava and Sir Archibald
Campbell. You can reach the village by boat down the stream from Mandalay. It is 80 km (50
mi) from Ava.

Under the treaty, the Court of Ava agreed to cease interference in the affairs of Jaintia, Cachar,
and Assam and to cede to the British their provinces of Arakan and the Tenasserim, and that the
Burmese government recognise the “independence of
Manipur.” They had to pay the British a large indemnity in gold and silver. For the Burmese it
was the very beginning of the end of their independence.

GE Harvey wrote: “Manipur though tributary to Burma under Bayinnaung 1551-81 had gone her
way since his time. In 1647 and 1692 the raja [Manipur] had raided.
Thaungdut on the Chindwin River, but these were only ordinary forays. On the other hand, in
1704 he [raja of Manipur] presented a daughter. But under Gharib Newaz 1714-54 Manipur
became a thorn in the side of Upper Burma.

The country was famous for its ponies, and in those days, every man, however humble,
possessed two or three. Polo played forty aside, was universal, and made them expert horsemen.
They started in 1724 by saying they would present another girl to provide company for the one
presented in 1704. But when three hundred lords, ladies and attendants from the Ava Court came
to escort her at the mouth of Yu river in the upper Chindwin district [not far from Tammu] they
were met not by a tame princess by wild horsemen who carried them all away captive into
Manipur.

The Burmese sent an expedition in revenge, but it was ambushed in the swamps near Heirok,
southeast of Thoubal, and losing heavily retreated in haste.

In 1735 the Manipuris came to Myedo in Shwebo district [north of Mandalay] and carried off
loot, cattle, and a thousand people, mainly descendents of De Brito’s Indians Muslim war
captives.

In 1737 they killed two thirds of a royal levy sent to oppose them, including the Commander,
who was drunk, and swept down to Tabayin in Shwebo district, burning everything they met.

In 1738 when the king garrisoned these two places and Minguine in the upper Chindwin district,
against them, they simply cantered past, camped at the Thalunbyu west of Sagaing [south of
Minguin], burnt every house and monastery up to the walls of Ava, stormed the stockade built to
protect the Kaunghmudaw pagoda [at Sagaing].

They slaughtered the garrison like cattle in a pen and killed the commandant, a minister of the
Hluttaw Council; the old door-leaves of the pagoda’s eastern gateway show a gash made by the
sword of Gharib Newas when he was forcing an entrance.

One reason why the Manipuris raided Burma was that they had just been converted to Hinduism
by preachers who said that if they bathed in the Irrawaddy River at Sagaing all blessedness
would attend them. Indeed. Their chief Brahman insisted on coming to Ava himself in 1744 in
order to convert the Golden Palace, but he fell ill and died after staying a month, and his suite of
lesser Brahmins then returned home.

The Manipuris raided again in 1740 but in 1741 they sent an envoy with a jacket for the raja’s
[Manipuri] kinswoman who had been presented to the Ava harem in 1704;
he also brought complimentary presents for the king, whose orders were that his presents should
be sent in at once and then he [envoy] should be kept waiting for a month before being granted
an audience or seeing the princess.

In 1749 Gharib Newaz came on his last raid, thinking “if there is an opportunity to fight, I will
fight; and if there is not I will present a daughter.” On reaching Ava he found the Burmese forces
so numerous that they stretched from Shweketyet [in

Ava] to Londawpauk (in Arakan, west of Ava]; moreover, during the night his standard was
blown down, a terrible potent; always celebrated for his royal wisdom, he now perceived that
this was not an occasion to fight, and instead he presented his twelve year-old daughter who
accompanied him.”

The Burmese View of “Seven-year Devastation” of Manipur

By: Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh – April 19 2012

Though we can not always trust historians who often tend to manipulate, we can not do without
them. For example: historians who study the life of Jesus draw a wide range of conclusions.
While religious historians will write about Jesus as real historical figure, non-religious writers
will go at lengths to prove that Jesus was a fictional figure as they will about Krishna.

As I hardly know anything about Manipur’s “Chahi Taret Khundakpa”- “Seven-year

Devastation” (1819-1825), I continue to swim over the shallow tides of that part of Manipur’s
history. I believe, ‘Ningthourol Lambuba’ has a record of this but the text is unavailable for
general reading.

The chance to read an old record of this bit of history came when my wife, my son and I went on
a holiday to Burma (Myanmar) in March 2012.

In Rangoon (Yangon), a city like Mumbai, I found one book: ‘History of Burma from the
Earliest Times to 10 March 1824’ by G E Harvey (London, 1925). The book is based on a mass
of original sources – Burmese inscriptions and chronicles, together with English, Dutch, and
Portuguese sources and translated Chinese chronicles.
History of Burma from the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 - Courtesy Google Books

The seven-year devastation was a long awaited revenge by the Burmese for what the Manipuris
did to them over the years. It only came to an end when the British East India Company defeated
the Burmese and the Treaty of Yandebo was signed on February 24 1826, between General
Archibald Campbell and the Governor of Lagaing, Maha M H K Htin.

To authenticate that my essay is not a concoction I will quote GE Harvey directly, as he would
not have had any interest in fabricating Manipuri history.

Before that I will dwell a bit on the Burmese who were known at that time of history, as Ava
(Innwa), who the Meiteis called Awa (corrupted by Hindus and Malays).The Europeans called
them Ava. The Burmese called the Manipuris as Kathe or (corrupted) Cassey.

The Burmese civilisation was a long way ahead of the Manipuri’s. They are Mongolian, yet,
their traditions refer to India. Even their folklore is largely Hindu with Hindu gods. Hindu
immigrants came to upper Burma through Assam while in lower Burma they came by sea from
Madras.

Their Hinduism began to include Buddhist elements after 261 BCE, when Asoka conquered
Kalinga and introduced Buddhism into south India. It spread from there to lower Burma and over
a long period of time to upper Burma. That was how the
Burmese began to use Tamil alphabet in the 5th century after Christ.

Ava was also the ancient capital of the dominant Ava kingdom that ruled Burma from 1364-
1557. It is situated on the south bank of the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River, as it bends east from
Mandalay, which is situated on the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy River.

According to British ethnologists who invented all kinds of ethnic migration theories, the name
Burma was derived from the majority ethnic group called Bamar (Burmans) who came down
with the horse-riding Nanzhao invasions from the present-day Yunnan. Nanzhaos left but the
Burmans stayed and founded a small city of Pagan (now Bagan with the ruins of two thousand
pagodas and temples) in the central Irrawady valley, c.849 (9th century). They established an
empire and their common language became Burmese. It is now the lingua franca of Myanmar.

By 1281, the 250-year-old Pagan Empire was destroyed by the invading Mongols of Kublai
Khan. The Mongols left but the Shans who came with the Mongols did not. They established
many separate Shan states in the entire northwest through central to eastern Burma until 1556.

In 1364, the most powerful Shan kingdom of Mogaung (in the present-day Kachin state) sacked
the Shan kingdom of Sagaing, just 20 km south west of Mandalay on the Indian border. During
the devastatation and in the same year a Sagaing prince Thadominbya emerged and founded the
Second Ava kingdom. The Ava kingdom became synonymous with the central and northern
Burma.

“In 1557 the Ava king Bayinnaung (1551-1581), conquered Manipur. Later, Ava King
Bodawpaya acquired Arakan in 1785, Manipur in 1814, and the Ahom Shan kingdom of Assam
along the Khasi hill district in 1817.” (GE Harvey pp165, 283)

There is nothing left at the old capital site of Ava except for a 200-year old teak Okkyaung
monastery (built in 1818). It is a little village now; to reach there, we travelled by boat down the
Irrawady from the Mandalay waterfront to Minguine for an hour.

There, on the bank of the Irrawady, an open and very welcome 4- star restaurant with chilled
beer, among the leafy trees, awaited the visitors in the hot Burmese Sun.
After lunch we travelled by horse carts along a very bumpy village road for an hour to the village
of Ava

The ruins of Ava are similar to Yandebo – a pottery village by the Irrawady River, where the
Treaty of Yandebo was signed under a tree, between the Court of Ava and Sir Archibald
Campbell. You can reach the village by boat down the stream from Mandalay. It is 80 km (50
mi) from Ava.

Under the treaty, the Court of Ava agreed to cease interference in the affairs of Jaintia, Cachar,
and Assam and to cede to the British their provinces of Arakan and the Tenasserim, and that the
Burmese government recognise the “independence of
Manipur.” They had to pay the British a large indemnity in gold and silver. For the Burmese it
was the very beginning of the end of their independence.

GE Harvey wrote: “Manipur though tributary to Burma under Bayinnaung 1551-81 had gone her
way since his time. In 1647 and 1692 the raja [Manipur] had raided.
Thaungdut on the Chindwin River, but these were only ordinary forays. On the other hand, in
1704 he [raja of Manipur] presented a daughter. But under Gharib Newaz 1714-54 Manipur
became a thorn in the side of Upper Burma.

The country was famous for its ponies, and in those days, every man, however humble,
possessed two or three. Polo played forty aside, was universal, and made them expert horsemen.
They started in 1724 by saying they would present another girl to provide company for the one
presented in 1704. But when three hundred lords, ladies and attendants from the Ava Court came
to escort her at the mouth of Yu river in the upper Chindwin district [not far from Tammu] they
were met not by a tame princess by wild horsemen who carried them all away captive into
Manipur.

The Burmese sent an expedition in revenge, but it was ambushed in the swamps near Heirok,
southeast of Thoubal, and losing heavily retreated in haste.

In 1735 the Manipuris came to Myedo in Shwebo district [north of Mandalay] and carried off
loot, cattle, and a thousand people, mainly descendents of De Brito’s Indians Muslim war
captives.

In 1737 they killed two thirds of a royal levy sent to oppose them, including the Commander,
who was drunk, and swept down to Tabayin in Shwebo district, burning everything they met.

In 1738 when the king garrisoned these two places and Minguine in the upper Chindwin district,
against them, they simply cantered past, camped at the Thalunbyu west of Sagaing [south of
Minguin], burnt every house and monastery up to the walls of Ava, stormed the stockade built to
protect the Kaunghmudaw pagoda [at Sagaing].

They slaughtered the garrison like cattle in a pen and killed the commandant, a minister of the
Hluttaw Council; the old door-leaves of the pagoda’s eastern gateway show a gash made by the
sword of Gharib Newas when he was forcing an entrance.

One reason why the Manipuris raided Burma was that they had just been converted to Hinduism
by preachers who said that if they bathed in the Irrawaddy River at Sagaing all blessedness
would attend them. Indeed. Their chief Brahman insisted on coming to Ava himself in 1744 in
order to convert the Golden Palace, but he fell ill and died after staying a month, and his suite of
lesser Brahmins then returned home.

The Manipuris raided again in 1740 but in 1741 they sent an envoy with a jacket for the raja’s
[Manipuri] kinswoman who had been presented to the Ava harem in 1704;
he also brought complimentary presents for the king, whose orders were that his presents should
be sent in at once and then he [envoy] should be kept waiting for a month before being granted
an audience or seeing the princess.

In 1749 Gharib Newaz came on his last raid, thinking “if there is an opportunity to fight, I will
fight; and if there is not I will present a daughter.” On reaching Ava he found the Burmese forces
so numerous that they stretched from Shweketyet [in

Ava] to Londawpauk (in Arakan, west of Ava]; moreover, during the night his standard was
blown down, a terrible potent; always celebrated for his royal wisdom, he now perceived that
this was not an occasion to fight, and instead he presented his twelve year-old daughter who
accompanied him.”

The writer is based in the UK

Email: imsingh{at}onetel{dot}com
Website: www.drimsingh.co.uk
 Seven Years Devastation: 1819-1826 :: Book Review

James Oinam *

Seven Years Devastation: 1819-1826

Author: Dr N. Birachandra
Publisher: P.S. Publications, Manipur
Year of Publication: 2009
No. of Pages: 76 (including Bibliography)

The book under review, titled 'Chahi Taret Khuntakpa' in Manipuri, deals with the seven years of
occupation of the kingdom of Manipur by Burma, then known by the name of Ava by the locals.
The book starts with the historical background leading to the occupation, social and political
situation during the occupation, and ends with the recovery of Manipur by Gambhir Singh with
active help from the colonial British.

Among the internal factors responsible for the defeat of Manipur at the hands of Burma, the
author cites war for succession to the throne, conversion to Hinduism (which led to the neglect of
military aspect of the kingdom), among others. Along with the princess, the queens, the
Brahmins, and nobility played active roles in court politics.

The immediate cause of Burmese invasion was King Marjit's not attending the coronation
ceremony of the new Ava king, even though he had accepted to be a vassal of Ava to get help
from them to secure the throne of Manipur from his brother. This was taken as an act of rebellion
by the then imperialist Burma.

After King Garibniwaz, the weak successors were fighting for the throne in Manipur, on one
hand, while Burma was consolidating under able ruler Alungpaya, on the other hand. Burma
installed one puppet king after another for very short periods during the occupation.

Large-scale plunder and torture were carried out. Some indelible marks of this tragic period were
left in the public memory. Like when one smelled of burning chillies, they used to say, 'Awa lal
lakle' (Awa war has come).

It is said, women and children were locked up big houses without any ventilation and dry chillies
were burnt until they died of the smoke. Groups of men were bound together by impaling a cane
creeper called 'yairi' through their palms and then whipped when they are taken as prisoners to
Burma.

The author discusses in detail one Hirachandra, son of Labeinya Chandra, a nephew of Marjit
Singh. Hirachandra, according to the author, waged the first noteworthy guerrilla war in Manipur
against the occupying Burmese forces.

The author refutes the claim made by Dr M. Kaoba that when Gambhir Singh came out to
Manipur in 1821, Yumjaotaba and Herachandra resisted Gambhir Singh (pp. 28-29). According
to the author, there was no enmity between Hirachandra and Gambhir. In fact, he had refused the
throne of Manipur offered to him as his only intention was to free the kingdom from the
occupation.

In March 1820, he found a revolutionary party consisting of about 800 men. There are interesting
anecdotes of Manipuri women colluding with Hirachandra against the Burmese army.

When Lord Hasting became governor general, he dropped non-interference policy of his
predecessors. The situation had also changed a lot. Burma was advancing towards Cachar, after
occupying Assam and Manipur. Even though Marjit approached the British for help, Cachar was
split among three rulers, Chourjit, Marjit and Gambhir, ruling the plain, and Tularam in the hills.

In the end, the British allied with Gambhir Singh, establishing a force called Manipuri Levy,
which was trained by Captain Grant and Lt. R.B. Pemberton. It was this force that ultimately
dislodged the Burmese force from Manipur.

The expedition that began in Sylhet on 17 May 1825 ended in February 1826, when Gambhir
Singh completed the conquest of Manipur extending its boundary even beyond the Ningthee
River; thus ended the seven years of devastation. The First Anglo-Burmese war also brought to
an end with the signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo, 1826.

About five lakh people are believed to be killed during this period. Native Manipuri who fled the
occupation settled in Assam, Tripura, Cachar and Bangladesh. Those who were taken as war
captives are now settled in various parts of Burma.

The king undertook various measures to reconstruct the kingdom, including reducing
marriageable age, declaring those who did not return as outcast etc. to increase the population
which was decimated during the siege.

The author disagrees with certain writers who feel the devastation led to intellectual and moral
degeneration of Manipur. On the contrary, the author says that nineteenth century was also an
important period of intellectual and moral awakening in Manipur.

* James Oinam wrote this article for e-pao.net

The writer can be contacted at jamesoinam(AT)gmail(DOT0com
This article was webcasted on October 17, 2017.